Any chance you heard Dreyfus tell that story around 1990? He starred in Audrey Hepburn’s last film (Always)
To answer the OP’s question: no. There is not a single actor on this planet who won’t do crap. They may or may not know at the time that they’re acting in a crappy movie, they might believe that they have impeccable taste in projects, but sooner or later ALL of them will make a stinker.
OK… John Cazale. But he did the smart thing and died young.
Go see Josie and the Pussycats and then see how you feel. Personally, I thought it was quite clever, but my impression is that it’s generally hated.
So I assume you never saw Jurassic Park III or Omen III: The Final Conflict?
Isn’t Harry Dean Stanton in Down Periscope, the wretched submarine comedy with Kelsey Grammer and Rob Schneider?
Okay, let’s say I give you that. But why would anyone gamble that HDS could save something that Schneider was in?
I acknowledged, or tried to, that this rule was meant to be violated. All one has to do to verify that no single actor can save a doomed film is to go to IMDB and sort their work by ratings to see that even the Golden Children make boo-boos.
I would be interested (but not enough to do the work to find out myself) in which actor’s lowest rated film is higher than anybody else’s.
Is it worth a separate thread to identify the worst work by an actor? It could be fun in any case.
Robert DeNiro?
Al Pacino?
Robert Duvall?
They have made some real stinkers.
Years ago, I would have placed Jack Nicholson in this category.
Then he did Mars Attacks!. Ugh.
I can’t say I can remember being disappointed by anything that Gary Oldman was in.
And while Eurotrip wasn’t great, it was fun enough for me not to rule Vinny Jones out yet.
I take it you didn’t see their retooling of The Ladykillers (an interminable bore), and their previous film, Intolerable Cruelty, was no feast, either. But before those blunders, they had a shot at the title, as did the pre-Casino Martin Scorsese.
I don’t think there are any actors alive that haven’t done some kind of crap work; they do, after all, have to pay the bills just like the rest of us, and even the most renown actors and actresses–Alec Guinness, Helen Mirren, Robert DeNiro–have to do mainstream work to keep their name above the marquee, much of which turns out to be crap.
There are, however, actors who can elevate a film despite poor writing and direction; I’m thinking of Michael Caine (though there wasn’t much even he could do with Fire Down Below), Morgan Freeman, Robert Mitchum, and Gene Hackman. The noteworthy thing about these guys is how unaffected they are or were. All are noted for showing up and doing a day’s work with a minimum of fuss or flash, save for what is necessary to do the role. Mitchum’s interview with Roger Ebert (where he essentially snubs Ebert for repeatedly asking him inane questions) is a treasure, and Caine’s infamous comment about Jaws: The Revenge (“I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.”) is priceless.
And for the record, I’ll watch Julianne Nickelson in anything. Heck, I even sat through Seeing Other People, which was nearly unbearable.
Stranger
Sorry, that’s Julianne Nicholson.
Stranger
SuperNelson writes:
> Any chance you heard Dreyfus tell that story around 1990?
No, I quite distinctly remember when I read that story, and it was long before then. Indeed, with a little Googling I’ve been able to find the exact interview that this answer by Dreyfuss appeared in. It’s in the January 11, 1979 issue of Rolling Stone. I was a poor starving grad student back then, and I was able to buy very few magazines. I’m sure I remember this particular interview.
That would have been my example as well if the horrible memory of Flightplan was not still with me. What was she thinking!?
Title: Jodie Foster Does *Flightplan*
**Jodie Foster's Agent:** Now, Jodie, I know you're not big on these
action-thriller type of movies...
**Jodie Foster:** They're always so improbable and rarely give me a
chance to really act.
**Jodie Foster's Brain:** It's a big money paycheck, bitch!
**Jodie Foster's Agent:** ...but it's a opportunity to keep your name
in the public consciencousness...
**Jodie Foster:** Don't they remember me in *Silence Of The Lambs*
and *Summersby*?
**Jodie Foster's Brain:** We gots to take care of Numero Uno!
**Jodie Foster's Agent:** ...and you remember how popular *Maverick*
and *Panic Room* were...
**Jodie Foster:** I just want to be true to my art.
**Jodie Foster's Brain:** Goddamnit ho, we gots shorties gotta go to
college! We gots to redecorate the crib! We gots to pimp out the Pussy
Cruiser! Bobby D's gone an' done some straight up shit! You seen that
*Analyze This* pile and that crap with Ben Stillah? Ain't no big deal,
bitch!
**Jodie Foster's Agent:** ...and you can always use those successes to
parlay investors into financing movies like *The Dangerous Lives of Alter
Boys* and *Flora Plum*...
**Jodie Foster:** Well, when you put it that way...
**Jodie Foster's Brain:** Right on, girl! We be kickin' ass and taking
names like Carl Weathers in *Action Jackson*!
**Jodie Foster's Agent:** ...so here's this script for a movie called
*Flightplan* about a woman who loses her daughter on an
international flight...it's kind of like *The Lady Vanishes* crossed with
*Nightmare at 20,000 Feet*...
**Jodie Foster:** [sigh] So where do I sign?
**Jodie Foster's Brain:** You go, girl! We gonna get all Scarface on them
muthas that try an' tell us what we can' do!
- END -
Cast:
**Jodie Foster:** Jodie Foster
**Jodie Foster's Agent:** Ron Livingston
**Jodie Foster's Brain:** Samual L. Jackson
Copyright 2006. All Rights Reserved.
A Bad Egg Production.
Stranger
Parker Posey, lamentably, was in You’ve Got Mail.
DeNiro is a good candidate. Looking back through his resume, I don’t see anything that was truly, monumentally unwatchable; Backdraft is about as damning as it gets.
Pacino was in Gigli. His scene went on for about ten minutes longer than it should have, too; clearly the director knew that Pacino was going to be the only good thing about the picture, and wanted to put as much of him as possible in there.
Duvall is one of the absolute best actors in Hollywood, and has been for decades. However, he’s also made about three million movies since To Kill a Mockingbird, so some stinkers have to get in there. E.g., The Scarlet Letter, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Gods and Generals, and Kicking & Screaming (the Will Ferrell one, not the unjustly overlooked Noah Baumbach movie, which, come to think of it, starred Parker Posey as well, bringing me full circle from when I started writing this post).
Many years ago I thought this about Kiefer Sutherland, (couldn’t have been too many years after Lost Boys) so I rented a movie that I had never heard of because he was in it. This was when I learned the exception to the rule. But perhaps we should make exceptions for first movies, or even first starring roles.
With that in mind, I’ll nominate Brad Pitt.
Also, I’d watch anything with Vince Vaughn or John Cusack in it.
I’ll go ahead and point out that Tommy Lee Jones did a movie with Steven Segal (Under Siege?); and if Steven Segal is in it, it must be crap. Also, Jodie Foster was in Flightplan (credit to JKilez on the preview) and Contact.
It was Under Siege and despite the presence of the always-wooden Steven Seagal, it is surprisingly not-crap. This is mostly due to the efforts of Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, who in other venues would be accused of scenery-chewing and general ham-roasting, but in this case elevate this movie to high camp, as does the inclusion of Erika Eleniak (Playboy’s Playmate of the Month for July 1989) as “Miss July 1989, Jordan Tate”. Gary Chang’s excellent score is sufficiently rousing and Frank Tidy’s cinematography almost cause you to miss the fact that the USS Missouri, supposedly touring in the Mid-Pacific, is clearly portrayed in the film by a much smaller battleship (the USS Wisconsin) tied up at pier. Even Seagal doesn’t do too much to embarass himself, and an excellent supporting cast (many of whom return in Andrew Davis’ next project, The Fugitive) provide sufficient support to keep the plot creaking along. A rolling good time, especially if you take a shot every time Miss July screams, Gary Busey googles his eyes, and Tommy Lee Jones snarles. You gotta love the Dr. Strangelove-inspired Pentagon War Room, too. Tell me that’s not an in-joke.
Jones has done other unredeamable crap, though: witness Black Moon Rising, which doesn’t deserve even the five stars provided to it by the members of IMDb.
Stranger
Fair enough. I had a vision of Dreyfuss telling how his mom wanted to see a movie he was starring in because Audrey Hepburn had a small role.
This last couple of weeks I’ve been watching one of Neill’s early works; the 1983 British miniseries Reilly, Ace of Spies, in which he has the title role. A very good series I’d recommend to anyone but especially to fans of Neill.
That said, Neill also made Jurassic Park, which was popular but bad. And Omen III, which was unpopular and worse. And Bicentennial Man, which shows he can still make a bad movie.
I’ve seen all of his stuff from 1996-2005 (just checked out his IMDB profile. I’ve got some catching up to do!) and it is indeed all excellent. Although I have been told I am weird because I liked “Death to Smoochy.”
I also make a point to see everything with Philip Seymour Hoffman in it. 2002 was a good year for me because he and Norton were in TWO flicks together 
I watch a lot of stuff that Stephen Fry is in. I can’t say it’s all good. I just now watched a movie called “Relative Values” with him in it as a butler. Not outstanding but worth my Netflix approval.
I posted this once, but it looks like gremlins ate it. If it ends up as a double post, my apologies.
The thing about the size would be incorrect. They are/were both Iowa class battleships.
What was wrong with Mars Attacks?!